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Question from Shay: “I am shooting my first church wedding in about a month & I’m the only photographer. Any suggestions on how to get good pictures without having to edit them all because of the lighting??”
Sophia: make sure you have a flash attached to your camera
Sophia: if you can get into the church a day or two before the wedding around the time of the wedding then you can do a few pratice shots and see what type of setting you need to use for the day…
Morgan: Use a custom white balance with a grey card! It will dramatically affect your color!
Jackie: Get an external flash/ diffuser. thats what i need to do eventually
Aaron: Make sure your white balance is correct from the start!! There’s the idea, now go and research the rest. Learning it on your own will make it stick in your mind.
Valerie: Also, find out if you are permitted to use flash. Some churches do not allow it…
Brian: Yep custom white balance, and scouting your location is the best you can do going into a shoot.
But I don’t know how you can get by without any post processing… The end results is a bunch of images or prints that your client will get. Once they leave your hand it’s your representation to the world. Remember bad reviews travel faster than good reviews; so you wouldn’t want anything out there that poorly represents your work like a photo that wasn’t post processed. that’s just my opinon.
Jess: Rent or buy a Gary fong light difuser. I can’t stress this enough, I’ve wasted HOURS trying to account for poor lighting only to have horrible shadows and noise, I bought after much research and never leave home without it. Just shot my first indoor low light reception this past weekend and I’m blown away with the minimal amounts of edits I have to do
Ashley: Are there differences between gray cards? I don’t have one yet. Also I saw a photographer at a wedding and she had her flash unit pointed up with a white card shoved between the casing and the flash. Is this used to bouce the flash of the white card to create better lighting? Lowlight receptions are something hard for me
Shanyn: Jessica which one do you recommend? I see they have multiple different ones
Brian: Ashley the cards is meant throw light forward as well as bounce light on the ceiling. Grey cards are meant to get better white balance.
Meaghan: I would highly recommend learning to shoot without a flash in low light before booking a wedding – many churches Do not allow a flash and some couples (and their guests) don’t care to have a flash popping every 2 seconds …
Adjusting your ISO and manual settings should be second nature when shooting a wedding IMO
Shay: Thanks everyone. I am going to the church next week to take some practice shots. I do have flash bracket to put on my camera to raise the flash. I’m not really understanding what the grey card is.
Sheila: hire a 2nd
Jerilyn: The natural lighting or church lighting will probably be different on the day of the wedding, time of day makes a difference too….best bet is to shoot with a good lens (50 or 85 2.8 or less)…and I agree with previous post, there is always some processing involved to get the best shots – good luck!
Becky: I suggest kelvin for your wb
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